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Prototype Prescribing Outlier Dashboard for Stanhope Mews Surgery

At OpenPrescribing we are piloting a number of data-driven approaches to identify unusual prescribing and collect feedback on this prescribing to inform development of new tools to support prescribers and organisations to audit and review prescribing. These pilot results are provided for the interest of advanced users, although we don't know how relevant they are in practice. There is substantial variation in prescribing behaviours, across various different areas of medicine. Some variation can be explained by demographic changes, or local policies or guidelines, but much of the remaining variation is less easy to explain.

The DataLab is keen to hear your feedback on the results. You can do this by completing the following survey or emailing us at [email protected]. Please DO NOT INCLUDE IDENTIFIABLE PATIENT information in your feedback. All feedback is helpful, you can send short or detailed feedback.

This report has been developed to automatically identify prescribing patterns at a chemical level which are furthest away from “typical prescribing” and can be classified as an “outlier”. We calculate the number of prescriptions for each chemical in the BNF coding system, the count of all prescriptions within that chemical's BNF subparagraph, for prescriptions dispensed between June 2021 and December 2021. We then calculate the ratio of these counts along with the mean and standard deviation of those ratios across all Practices. From this we can calculate the “z-score”, which is a measure of how many standard deviations a given Practice is from the population mean. We then rank your “z-scores” to find the top 10 results where prescribing is an outlier for prescribing higher than its peers and those where it is an outlier for prescribing lower than its peers.

For each outlier chemical, a kernel density estimation plot of all Practice's chemical:subparagraph ratios is provided, with this Practice's ratio overlaid in red.

It is important to remember that this information was generated automatically and it is therefore likely that some of the behaviour is warranted. This report seeks only to collect information about where this variation may be warranted and where it might not, to inform research on this topic. Our full analytical method code is openly available on GitHub here.

This is a new, experimental feature. We'd love to .

Prescribing where Stanhope Mews Surgery is higher than most

BNF Chemical Chemical Items BNF Subparagraph Subparagraph Items Ratio Mean std Z_Score Plots
Povidone iodine 1 Ocular diagnostic & peri-operative prepn & photodynamic tt 7 0.14 0.00 0.00 32.21
Phenoxybenzamine hydrochloride 2 Alpha-adrenoceptor blocking drugs 178 0.01 0.00 0.00 12.83
Mefloquine hydrochloride 1 Antimalarials 53 0.02 0.00 0.00 10.21
Orphenadrine hydrochloride 4 Antimuscarinic drugs used in parkinsonism 18 0.22 0.01 0.03 6.77
Azilsartan medoxomil 3 Angiotensin-II receptor antagonists 1,381 0.00 0.00 0.00 6.17
Sodium chloride 11 Tear deficiency, eye lubricant/astringent 173 0.06 0.00 0.01 4.89
Perindopril arginine 12 Angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors 1,249 0.01 0.00 0.00 4.64
Magnesium citrate 5 Bowel cleansing preparations 7 0.71 0.03 0.16 4.35
INR blood testing reagents 14 Oral anticoagulants 1,077 0.01 0.00 0.00 4.24
Tafluprost and timolol 18 Treatment of glaucoma 533 0.03 0.00 0.01 3.90

Prescribing where Stanhope Mews Surgery is lower than most

BNF Chemical Chemical Items BNF Subparagraph Subparagraph Items Ratio Mean std Z_Score Plots
Ispaghula husk 41 Bulk-forming laxatives 56 0.73 0.96 0.07 -3.20
Aciclovir 157 Herpes simplex and varicella-zoster 206 0.76 0.95 0.07 -2.88
Water for injection 1 Electrolytes and water 8 0.12 0.82 0.25 -2.83
Allopurinol 221 Gout and cytotoxic induced hyperiuicaemia 288 0.77 0.90 0.05 -2.50
Medroxyprogesterone acetate 3 Parenteral progestogen-only contraceptives 6 0.50 0.88 0.15 -2.49
Potassium citrate 1 Drugs used in urological pain 3 0.33 0.92 0.25 -2.34
Other emollient preparations 177 Emollients 237 0.75 0.89 0.07 -2.10
Sildenafil (Erectile Dysfunction) 195 Drugs for erectile dysfunction 337 0.58 0.77 0.09 -2.04
Methylphenidate hydrochloride 92 CNS Stimulants and drugs used for ADHD 380 0.24 0.65 0.20 -2.00
Sulfasalazine 4 Aminosalicylates 78 0.05 0.33 0.14 -1.97